Just take a look at Russia’s current demands for peace with Ukraine, expressed by Dmitry Medvedev. I’m sure you’ll agree that he puts it rather clearly; does this seem reasonable and fair to you?
The text below is an extract from today’s ISW report on the war in Ukraine. These are the Russian conditions for peace. It’s the official line, published by Dmitry Medvedev, currently Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council. This is what he calls a ‘peace formula’, it does have the merit of leaving us in no doubt about what Russia wants.
Medvedev begins the “peace plan” by rhetorically stripping Ukraine of its sovereignty, referring to it as a “former” country and placing the name Ukraine in quotation marks. Medvedev laid out the points of his “peace formula”, which he sardonically described as “calm”, “realistic”, “humane” and “soft.”
The demands are:
Reformatted, extracted from the ISW report for 14th March 2024.
- Ukraine’s recognition of its military defeat
- Complete and unconditional Ukrainian surrender
- Full “demilitarization”
- Recognition by the entire international community of Ukraine’s “Nazi character”
- The “denazification” of Ukraine’s government
- A United Nations (UN) statement stripping Ukraine of its status as a sovereign state under international law
- A declaration that any successor states to Ukraine will be forbidden to join any military alliances without Russian consent
- The resignation of all Ukrainian authorities and immediate provisional parliamentary elections
- Ukrainian reparations to be paid to Russia
- Official recognition by the interim parliament to be elected following the resignation of Ukraine’s current government that all Ukrainian territory is part of Russia
- The adoption of a “reunification” act bringing Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation
- The dissolution of the provisional parliament
- UN acceptance of Ukraine’s “reunification” with Russia
In a sense, this can be taken as a reply to the Pope’s recent statement about Ukraine ‘raising the white flag’. The Pope has since backtracked and clarified his statement, but Medvedev is most unlikely to backtrack his response.
The Russian official line is certain to be rejected and disregarded by most governments, by NATO, by the UN, and by people of goodwill throughout most of the globe. It is not acceptable as a starting point for negotiations of any kind, more a vain wish-list that very few can accept. Why, exactly, would Ukraine ‘recognise its military defeat’ when it is very clearly not defeated? And why does Medvedev think the entire world would ‘recognise’ that Ukraine has a ‘Nazi character’? Most of the world would be more likely to perceive such a character in the Russian government’s imperialist ambitions.
Dmitry Medvedev, and more to the point Vladimir Putin, seem to think they can get away with rewriting history, disregarding truth, invading an internationally recognised member state of the UN, breaking international law, and have the entire world let them get away with it. They are deluded. We will not and must not allow it.
